Dedicated is expanding. We are now filming our segments. We are doing some slick new video inside

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see us in studio. Welcome to Dedicated with Doug Brunt.

You have just gained access to an exclusive insider's look at the lives and works of some

of your favorite authors and hear conversations with the world's greatest writers as they

discuss their writing lifestyle, creative process, latest work, and behind-the-scenes revelations.

Welcome to Dedicated. I'm your host, Doug Brunt. Today we're with David Baldacci. I will keep

the introduction short because none is required. From the time of his 1996 debut novel,

Absolute Power, David has been a megastar. He has published more than 50 novels in 45

languages in 80 countries, and the last I looked, about 150 million copies sold, although I think

that is a little dated and probably a much bigger number.

Yeah, I think everybody stopped counting.

Well, in addition to his many charitable works, he and his wife, Michelle, founded the Wish You Well Foundation to promote literacy. And his latest Strangers in Time. David, it's great to see you. It's great to be here. Thank you. So this morning, we're going to have some sparkling water. Yes. I actually have some ice here, if you'd like some ice in the glass. No, I'll take it. I'm going to do a little so we can. I'll still have the sound effects without the liquor. Just won't need the nap at 2 o'clock this afternoon. But yeah, busy, it's morning time here as we record and you have a busy, busy day. No, but I'm really glad to be here. It's always fun to talk about books. Yeah. So I wanted to start with the beginning, as you know, that we do on the show, you're a Virginia guy throwing through and through. I'm born in Richmond. Yes. And I read something that your mother gave you a notebook when you were a kid to write stories in, and that planted the seed. Yeah, so my mom, I was the youngest of three, and I was a kid who never shut up. I told

stories and tall tales all the time, usually to get myself out of trouble. When I was five, I grew up in a street called Austin Avenue in Richmond, and I argued with everybody so much that they started calling me the Austin Avenue lawyer. Ironically, I grew up to be a trial lawyer, but my mom, when I was about eight gave me a blank page book and said, honey, you know, I know you like to read, and I know

that you have all these ideas. So why why don't you start writing some of them down? That might be fun. So I did. As soon as my pencil hit the paper, it was kind of like this epiphany that I can transfer what's up here on the paper and maybe other people could enjoy it. And I never really looked back. I just started writing short stories and later on screenplays and eventually novels. And I went back to my mom years later to thank her. And she said, honey, I'm so glad it's worked out for you. But quite frankly, I just wanted to shut you the hell up. You know, she threw out the little southern phrase, you'd gotten on my last nerve boy. That's so funny. So that's where it started for me. It was just a parenting technique to get some private time for mom. A moderation of behavior.

It worked. Do you have siblings? I do, older brother and older sister. Did they not get the notebook early on? Or what do they? Well, you know, my sister was a journalist for years. And she's actually written a couple of novels. and my brother was an artist for his career.

And so there was sort of that vein of creativity. Were your parents big readers or

into the arts? No, but here's what they did. Neither one of them had the opportunity to go to

college, but they knew the quality of an education. And so we were, the three kids were the first of our family to go into

college. We all wanted to VCU in Richmond because it was really cheap and you can work your way

through college, which we all did. But they took us to the library week. And I grew up at the tail end of

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